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Welcome to the weekend!! We’re kicking it off my favourite way today – with Fitness Friday!

This week’s fitness discussion is all about weight lifting sets.

To begin, I must explain what a set is. Lifting is done in repetitions (aka “reps”). One repetition would be the concentric and eccentric parts of the movement. Confused? Basically it’s the muscle contraction, or up & down motion of an exercise. So one rep would be squatting and coming back up, or curling a dumbbell to your side and bringing it back up. Real basic stuff here, but it’s always good to lay it all down in the beginning :)

The number of reps you do when lifting varies. People will go anywhere from 3 to 30. Typically, they are done consecutively, followed by a period of rest, or a change in exercise. One group of repetitions is called a set. So that’s what I mean when I say I did three sets of 15 reps of one certain exercise!

Okay, now onto the juicy stuff…

Straight sets

These are sets of the same exercise performed one after the other with a break in between, typically lasting 30 seconds to 2 minutes.

These are when you alternate 2-3 exercises with a rest period between each set. Typically, these are done with opposing muscles or synergistic muscles (aka two muscle groups that help each other work).

Example: Three alternating sets each of bicep curls and tricep extensions (opposing muscles) or three alternating sets of lat pulldowns and bicep curls (synergistic muscles)

Supersets

Just like alternating sets, except with no rest in between.I love doing these to keep my heart rate up while pumping the iron ;) I recommend doing these with opposing muscles to begin with. So, doing a set push-ups then immediately moving into a set of pull-ups. This way, your chest gets to rest while you work your back on the pull-ups, and you can move through the sets more quickly without fatiguing.

Pyramid sets

Start a pyramid set with a lighter weight and perform more reps than you typically would (until the last few feel really hard). Rest, then grab a heavier weight, performing 3-5 fewer reps than before. Rest, grab an even heavier weight (watch your form) and perform even fewer reps. This should be really hard. Then reverse it, go for the lighter (or lightest, if you’re only doing four sets) and try to do the same number of reps you did with the same weight earlier. It’s going to be a helluva lot harder, and that’s a good thing ;) You can also reverse the order, starting with the heaviest, going lighter, then moving back up.

The purpose of a pyramid set is that it gets into all your muscle layers and hits some of those muscle fibres that wouldn’t be targeted with just the usual weight/rep combo. Definitely an advanced option, but a fun way to switch it up!

Drop sets

The same idea as pyramid sets, except this time you start with the heaviest weight, performing as many reps as you can. Then move down 3-10 lbs, lift until failure, then move down one more time, adding more reps. Even though the weight is getting lighter, it will feel considerably harder. Again, this is a sure-fire way to exhaust your muscles, which is the goal when trying to build muscle. (remember – muscle isn’t “sculpted,” it’s built!)

Extra notes: I do not recommend doing drop or pyramid sets for one muscle group more than twice in one workout. Nor do I recommend doing them more than once a week. Their purpose is to shock the muscle and stimulate more muscle tears, but you need to allow those extra tears time to rebuild in order for these methods to be effective. I also recommend doing pyramid and drop sets on plated machines instead of hogging three sets of dumbbells ;)

Circuit

Circuits are so the “in thing” right now. My clients love them, and it’s easy to tell why. They’re great for people with short attention spans, who are impatient, or bore easily. They’re also fabulous for keeping your heart pumping, meaning you’re blasting a few extra calories during your strength routine.

A lot of people would classify a circuit as one set of three or more exercises performed consecutively, then repeated all over again. However, I argue that a circuit is at least four exercises done one after the other, and even go up to 6-10 exercises. I don’t allow rest between each individual exercise, only when all of them have been performed consecutively can you rest before it’s time to start back at the top.

I am including this one not because I recommend you try it out, but because it’s at least worth knowing what the heck it is.

“1RM” stand for One Rep Max. You got it, it’s a set that consists of just one rep. This one rep is performed with a weight so heavy that you can only do it once. A lot of people use this as a way to measure their strength gains, as predictably your 1RM of an exercise will increase as you get stronger. But again, I do not recommend you try this one out on your own to find out. I’ve heard horror stories of people blowing out their knees trying to do a 1RM squat!!

As with most things fitness related, there are a ton of variations out there. I’m covering the basics because we don’t have all day ;) I always encourage further research on your own. Don’t be scared that you’ll get big and bulky by playing around with your reps and sets. Some days changing up my set variation is enough to get me excited and motivated in the weight room! (and erm, unable to lift my fork the next day :P )

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Welcome!

My name is Susan, I'm a 20-something living in Atlantic Canada and this is my blog about... me. I used to blog about food and fitness, but that all changed in June 2011 when I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. After six months of chemotherapy, I was declared cancer-free in January 2012. I now write about anything and everything as I stumble through my post-cancer world. I'm a trained journalist currently working as a writer/researcher. I also have a background in personal fitness training and nutrition. Welcome to my piece of the internet!
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